'I'm Going To Do Whatever It Takes' | Baltimore Boxer Working Toward Championship, Ph.D.
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Mayor Jack Young made a controversial suggestion recently that one solution to the problem of violence in the city would be to get angry young people into a boxing ring.
Dorian Bastick might agree. The self-named "educated boxer" has a bachelors degree, a masters degree and is working on a Ph.D. Just last month, he fought his first professional fight and won.
Bastick spent his childhood in foster care. His father was in prison and mother lost to him.
"I'm going to do whatever it takes to win every championship and climb every mountain," he said. "What makes you good at boxing is when you do things when you're tired."
At 31, Bastick works two jobs and his just six courses away from his Ph.D. at Walden University.
From Essex Community College to Coppin State for his bachelors, a masters in human services from the University of Baltimore, he's earned his title "educated boxer."
"I hurt and I used to cry a lot growing up due to my condition," Bastick said. "So you can't get back tears and years so don't waste them.
Bastick trains at North Avenue's Umar Boxing and said that he is motivated by memory.
"I think about the abuse I went through," he said. "All the different types of abuse. I think about the hurt that I walk around with. I just think about growing up as a kid and looking up at the stands and you never see anybody there to see you participate."
Bastick works with kids and as a part-time social worker when he is not boxing. He said he won't stop until he is known as Dr. Bastic world champion featherweight boxer.
Bastick manages his own career and raises money to continue boxing through his GoFundMe page. That's how he got to North Carolina, and how he's hoping to continue competing this summer.
